How Sudha and Bhuvan Gunavante Used Rainwater Harvesting to Break a Centuries-old Curse in Uttarakhand

A small village in Uttarakhand stands testimony to the fact that rooftop rainwater harvesting is a reliable, economical and logical way of ensuring self-sufficiency and dignity.

Sudha Gunavante is a contented woman. She has reason to be. After all, she and her husband have managed to prosper on their farm, her children are well-educated and well-settled, and her rhododendron syrup is the pride of the village. If that is not enough, she has also managed to escape a centuries-old curse.

Sudha and Bhuvan Gunavante at their home in Guna, Almora district, Uttarakhand. They have installed rainwater harvesting tanks in their house and farm – a move that has revolutionized their life and livelihood

Sudha and her husband live in Gauna, a small village in Lamgarah tehsil of Almora district in Uttarakhand. It was to this village that long ago, a sadhu arrived. He asked a householder for a drink of water but was refused this hospitality. Angered by this, he cursed the village that all its water sources would dry up and the village would not have any more water. When Sudha got married and came here some 30 years ago, the village was still curse-stricken.

The nearest source of water was a spring at the bottom of the mountain on which the village was located – a very steep 3km walk down, and the same steep 3km walk uphill with water-laden pots. There was more to the story. Water at this spring was limited. In the summer if she were unfortunate enough to arrive late, the stored water would be over and she would have to wait for half a day for the spring to replenish itself. To avoid this, she used to go to the spring at 3am, expecting a leopard to leap onto her back any moment. The three pots of water that were allowed per household needed to last her for drinking, washing and all possible domestic uses. There was no question of irrigation at all. Cattle needed to be driven far away till they found a watering hole with sufficient water to quench their thirst.

A simple rooftop rainwater harvesting system provides drinking water and protective irrigation

Since 2003, there has been a huge change in her life. No longer does she make that arduous and frightening trip down a mountain in the middle of the night. No longer does her entire day go in merely carrying water. No longer are she and her husband at the mercy of the rain. They now practice protective irrigation, start their seedlings before the monsoon, and cultivate exotic, high value crops like the Kiwi fruit. She is a member of a self-help group that manufactures and sells rhododendron syrup. So what happened in 2003?

Sudha and Bhuvan Gunavante began to harvest rainwater.

Like many other people in their village, Sudha and Bhuvan Gunavante follow two approaches to harvesting rainwater. One of these is harvesting rooftop rainwater. The other is harvesting surface runoff.

The ability to irrigate allows the Gunavantes to try high value crops like Kiwi

Rooftop rainwater harvesting collects water from the roof, through a system of horizontal channels and vertical down-take pipes and carries it to a closed tank. Water is stored here, close to the house and can be used for drinking and other domestic purposes. These tanks can be built of several suitable materials. The tanks at Gauna, partly funded through a project initiated by the Central Himalayan Environment Association (CHEA), an NGO that focuses on water management and improving livelihoods of people in the mountain states, were built of brick and plastered externally and internally.

Other villages in the area are following suit as well. Duarab is a village in Nainital district that prides itself on cultivating organic vegetables. Here too, nearly every roof has its downtake leading to a storage tank. However, the villagers have chosen to continue to use the spring water rather than the rainwater for drinking. Why? Because the precious rainwater is reserved for watering seedlings. This enables them to raise vegetable plants well before the monsoon, thus ensuring that the vegetables they produce receive the high prices possible early in the season.

A simple rooftop rainwater harvesting system in Duarab. Here the tank forms part of the yard

Harvesting surface runoff involves channelling the water that runs across the land and diverting it into an open tank. These tanks are constructed by the villagers. First a rectangular pit- the size may vary according to the amount of water it will receive and the land available – is dug. The surface is made smooth with a mixture of clay and cow dung. A plastic sheet is laid over this. Finally, a dry stone wall is built to protect this sheet.

Such a tank, if de-silted and maintained well can last for decades. These are mainly used for irrigation and for livestock. The popularity of these tanks proves their efficacy. Bhuvan Gunavante started with 2 tanks in 2003; a decade later, he boasts of 10 tanks on his land. There are 155 such rainwater harvesting tanks in Gauna and its neighbouring villages.

irrigation tank on the Gunavante’s farm – This tank harvests surface runoff from the fields

How much water can a roof yield? Quite a lot. Let us assume that the size of a roof is 6m X 4m (a conservative estimate). In a normal year, which receives an average rainfall of 1500mm, an astounding 36 cubic metres or 36 thousand litres of water rolls down it. However, not all this water can be collected and stored. Water from the first rains is allowed to flow away. This process known as the first flush cleans the roof. It is generally estimated that 80% of the rain that falls on a rooftop can be harvested. This means that about 29,000 litres can be harvested from the rooftop in our example. Averaging out 40 litres per person per day to be an adequate amount of water for a person in a rural area, these 29,000 liters will suffice a couple like Sudha and Bhuvan for 363 days – or almost the entire year!

Ideally, a tank would store enough water to tide one over 3 months. In the case of Sudha and Bhuvan, this would store about 14,500 litres of water. However, it is not necessary to be so meticulous about this. Building a tank depending upon the space that a family can afford to allot to it, is still far more useful than not building one at all. The tanks designed to capture surface runoff too, can be aligned as per land availability. Water can be harvested from nearly every type of roof – from tin, slate and mud. In case of the latter, installation of a filter is necessary before rainwater enters the tank.

Rainwater harvesting tanks become an important part of the village community

The biggest beneficiaries of the rainwater harvesting initiative are the women of these villages. No longer do they have to make the arduous trek in order to fetch water. Not only has it reduced drudgery, but also prevented water conflicts, opened up means of livelihood generation and made agriculture profitable again.

For the villagers of Gauna and Duarab, the installation of rooftop rainwater harvesting tanks is now the norm. This needs to be the case in every house in the Himalayan region, not to mention in the rest of India. Rooftop rainwater harvesting is an assured, reliable, economical and logical way of ensuring a certain level of self-sufficiency and dignity. By giving each household control over its water source, rainwater harvesting illustrates decentralization at its best. This needs to be an integral part of our rural development model.

This article was written by Chicu Lokgariwar for India Water Portal (IWP) and republished here in arrangement with IWP.

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